


Ace, November 1997 - April 1998

by readyfreddie



Series: Max and Ace (working title) [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: 90s senisbilities, F/M, M/M, italics as caps because i can't be bothered, this is barely even edited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-25 10:12:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10762146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readyfreddie/pseuds/readyfreddie
Summary: Ace explores in successive incidents what rock bottom should actually look and feel like.





	Ace, November 1997 - April 1998

Ace is pretty sure Max has no idea why he hates Noel Carter. He just looked confused and a little concerned when Ace went off about it, the expression emphasizing the tiny dimple in his chin just a little.  
The thing is, all the girls don't bother him nearly as much. He gets it - every one of them is pretty or hot in her own way, some of them are sweet and a couple are bitchy but fun, and he'd do them too if -  
Anyway, the thing is, Noel Carter is like, HOT. He's at least 6'2" and he's ripped and he's on the wrestling team (and if he likes boys doesn't that get...AWKWARD sometimes?), he's got this soft dark hair that curls loosely and the bluest eyes - and what does Ace have that Noel Carter doesn't? Nothing, that's what. Ace will probably top 6 foot when he's done growing but he's gangly right now, he'll admit it. And his abs are ok but he doesn't have a six pack like Noel, and his skin is better than most guys' but it's not perfect. He thinks his dick is probably decent, but thing thing is, NOEL HAS A DICK TOO. So why the hell would Max need Ace? But for some reason, as soon as Max realized just how much Ace HATES Noel Carter, he stopped everything. Like, barely even nods to him in the halls now.  
Ace can live with everything else if he's Max's only guy. And that sounds so childish and stupid in his head, but - he needs this one thing. He needs to be special to Max SOMEHOW.  
*  
On Thanksgiving, Max calls around 8pm, home from visiting family in Vancouver. His mom throws up her hands and says "fine! Go - all of you! I guess family time is over!" and his sister Cassie rolls her eyes because she's been trying to leave for her boyfriend's house since dessert. "Of course when ACE wants to leave," she mutters. Jenna and Becca, home from college and wiser with age, know better than to question it, and just go.  
Anyway, Aaron flings himself into Max's car as soon as it pulls into the driveway, huddled in his puffy Tommy Hilfiger jacket, and tosses his backpack in the back seat. "Please tell me you have pot Benjy, I'm fucking dying."  
Max grins at him, incisors glinting in the streetlight, reaches over and opens the glove box. "Tell me about it."  
"Jesus fuck THANK you."  
He's finally relaxed now, tangled up with Benjy in the backseat, a couple old wadded up wool blankets cushioning his back from the car door, Benjy on top of him (because for some reason he gets weird if he's underneath anyone for any reason, but Ace doesn't really mind). They're lazily making out, his hands up the back of Benjy's t-shirt, just keeping warm there against the smooth skin of his back, no urgency, and something inside him just ACHES - like his heart's about to fly right out his chest. Maybe he makes a sound, an off movement - Max breaks away, looking down at him, cups his jaw with one hand. "Ok Jans?"  
Ace's breath catches, he reaches up to run his thumb over Max's sharp cheekbone, chest so tight he can hardly breathe. "It's just - I just -"  
Max leans back down, pressing their foreheads together a moment, ghosts his lips across Ace's, whispers "I know Jans, me too."  
Later on they're at Max's house, watching "From Dusk Till Dawn" (again) and eating pecan pie (a couple hours ago Ace was sure he wouldn't eat again for days but here he is - and it's PECAN PIE, in his defense). Half way through the movie Blair comes downstairs, takes one look at him and storms right back up, and Ace has never felt so uncomfortable at a friend's house in his life before, let alone Max's. He can hear her arguing with her mom (Mrs Dorthea "call me Dotty" Benjamin) upstairs, although the sound of Seth Gecko fighting vampires drowns out the individual words. He keeps looking towards the staircase, increasingly agitated, as the voices rise and fall, Blair's always angry but never intelligible, like an adult in a Charlie Brown cartoon.  
"C'mon dude, stop," Max says, pulling the can of Dr Pepper from Ace's hand - he's been flicking the tab, over and over: "ping, ping, ping." Max nudges Ace's pinky with his own, and after a quick look around, presses a brief kiss to the corner of his mouth. Ace feels at once frozen in horror and - and WARM, and looking around the dim livingroom himself realizes he's maybe being a little paranoid. He kisses back, a peck, and Max smiles.  
"Let's just go to my room," Max says, pulling him to his feet. Max's bedroom is the only one downstairs. It's back behind the kitchen, an add-on to the house because Max has never slept well at night and tends to roam the house at all hours. Tucking him as far as possible from the rest of the family's bedrooms ensures the rest of the Benjamins can actually sleep when Max can't. As for the ease with which Max can come and go at any time without his parents noticing due to the location of that bedroom - well, they haven't seem to have realized that quite yet, so. No one else is going to bring it up.  
Ace collapses on Max's full-sized mattress, and Max's dog, a skinny gray whippet called Tank, creeps over from her spot at the end of it to delicately lick his nose.  
Max's bedroom is very different from Ace's own. Ace clearly lives in the bedroom of a teenage boy, posters on the wall and dirty clothes everywhere, pieces of childhood still clinging with a limited edition action figure here, a proudly displayed model car there. But Max's bedroom could be an adult's, with sleek, darkwood furniture and all his clothes neatly in place, except it looks like a library vomited up in it and the bed is never, ever made. Ace dislodges the book digging into the small of his back and sets it aside, careful not to lose Max's place.  
Max is rummaging in his dresser drawer, but he finally flops down next to Ace with an unopened fifth of blackberry brandy, slings an arm over him, nuzzling his neck, pressing kisses into the sensitive skin there, sharply nips the earlobe. Ace lets out a little, involuntary moan - which was embarrasing when they first started this thing till he noticed how much Max seems to like it. Ace reaches up and guides Max's lips to his. "You lock the door man?"  
"Duh."  
*  
Max has to work in the morning, and Ace tags along, to the reception desk of Max's Dad's construction company, where Max fills in for Karen the secretary after school most afternoons and days like this, when Karen has the whole day off. They'd finished off most of the brandy the night before, and Ace has definitely had better mornings. He's listlessly sipping orange Gatorade and eyeing the other half of the McMuffin Jeb Benjamin had gotten for him, wondering if it'd come right back up like the first half had if he finishes it, when the bell attached to the office door jingles. It's Sara Freaking Denny and Katie Jordan, and Aaron tenses, then forces himself to relax. He knows Max fucks Jordan sometimes, even though Topher Carter, who's in his grade, and sort of their friend (not like the guys, but they hang out) is technically her boyfriend, and Sara -  
One thing Ace hadn't known until he and Max started thier - this, THING, was apparently Max and Sara started fucking back in EIGHTH GRADE, at Crystal Lance's Christmas party that year, and haven't really stopped since. The thing is though, Max doesn't actually like her very much, which is why he dumped her a couple weeks after eighth grade graduation. She's loud and brash and very in-your-face, always trying to start a fight and Ace used to wonder what Max ever saw in her. (Hint: it's apparently the no-strings-attached sex.)  
"Max!" Katie says. "We were on our way to Olympia to go shopping and saw your car." She leans into the desk, her face just inches away from Max's, and Ace can see him flinch, back away just a little, wanting her out of his bubble but not willing to make a big deal out of it. Sara hangs back a bit, her arms folded across her chest, which squeezes her boobs together so the cleavage pops out of her white v-neck. She's wearng a black bra, and her lips are coated in a weird dark purply brown color. They curl up suggestively, and she's looking Ace up and down half like she knows something he doesn't hand half like she's about to eat him. Rudely, maybe, he swivles away from her in the office chair, yawning. They'd been up till 3am and this hangover is PERSISTENT.  
"So like - when we get back tonight," Katie is saying, "Sara and I were gonna have some people over. I already talked to -"  
Ace zones out as her voice drones on, till suddenly Max is shaking him gently by the shoulder, laughing. "Oh my god Jans, you totally fell asleep. You should've seen Katie's FACE. She was so offended."  
Ace pulls off his ball cap, runs his hand through slightly sweaty hair. Max's hand lingers on his shoulder and he's smiling down fondly at Ace. He can feel his ears grow just a little hot. "What's up?"  
"So - did you hear any of that? Getting together at Katie's tonight?"  
"A little - why, you going?"  
"WE are going. I'm pretty sure Sara wants to bone you."  
"Even though I offended them by falling asleep?" Ace squints up at Max. He doesn't look even a little upset about what he just said, and Ace has no idea how to feel about that.  
"Pfft. Sara doesn't give a fuck. She just said 'Ace turned into a hottie this year. Bring him' so I said I would." Max cocks his head. "You don't mind, do you? Do you not think she's hot?"  
And Ace - he swallows, hard, feeling more than ever like he's going to hurl, shrugs Max off to reach for his Gatorade. He regrets it, the missing warmth of Max's fingers on his shoulder leaving him oddly cold. He shrugs again. "I mean...she's ok." Swallows again. Ace has kissed a lot of girls. He's touched his share of boobs. It was...nice at the time, exciting because it was new, and he was 12, 13, 14 and doing something he shouldn't, something adult. And then he was 15 and there was Blair and - looking back he can't see how he didn't get it at the time, how much he just wanted her to be Max, how he'd asked her out because she was the closest he could get to that.  
It's not - he...now that he KNOWS, like, how it can be with, well, NOT girls, it's -  
Also, Sara's long fake purple nails are creepy as fuck.  
Max is scrabbling around on the desk. "I don't know how she fucking finds anything around this place." Passing Ace on the way to the fax machine, he stops, stoops, resting his forehead against Ace's, like he does, hand on the back of Ace's neck. It's very warm.  
"You still feel like microwaved death, don't you Jans?"  
He nods, shrugs (again). "Couple more Gatorades and I'll be alright."  
Max rests a hand on his cheek, squeezes his neck once gently before letting go, grabs Ace's cold half-eaten sandwich and shoves it in his mouth.  
"We'll get you more," he mumbles around a bite of sausage.  
*  
Ace is right. When Sara practially pounces on him that night, he doesn't feel much but faint revulsion, especially when her vicious nails bite into the back of his neck, so different from Max's solid warm touch. And that's great, really, just super.  
Fortunately, Katie's parents have no idea she's invited people over, and break up her little get together less than 30 minutes in, coming home early from a holiday party.  
Max finds an abandoned cul-de-sac and hauls Ace to the back seat, absolutely frantic after being left blue-balled by Katie's parents, and Ace ends up with a dark red hickey on his collar bone and jizz all over his t-shirt. He has another one one underneath, so he just wads it up and shoves it under the seat.  
They hotbox the Mazda, then drive around on the back roads listening to Portishead till Max's curfew.  
*  
It's the second week in December, Thursday night around 7pm, when Aaron Janczewski gets the most devastating news of his young life. (It will later turn out to have been the best news of his life, but right now Ace is 15 and this is, as Max says later, "not ideal timing.") (Either way, Ace never hears "Don't Fear the Reaper" again without feeling a little ill.)  
He's trying to write an essay on "The Grapes of Wrath" when a car pulls through the circular driveway in front of his house. Peeking out his window, desperate for any distraction from the symbolism of a fucking turtle, and recognizing the Mazda, Ace opens the window and signals he'll be right down.  
On the way out the door he has to promise his mom his essay is finished (it's not, but he can ask Max for a verbal outline - Max'll spout it off in five minutes, and Ace will bang out the rest of the essay in less than a half hour when he gets home. Max may be a genius, but Ace IS actually on the honor roll.) and swear he'll be back by ten. He's so fucking happy to see Max out of the blue, with no prior planning or announcement whatseover, he fails to consider just how out of character that is for Max (who always, always calls first).  
He doesn't KNOW it quite yet, but this is one of those pivitol moments, wherein a person can look back and know for certain his life changed that day (like a certain day in June in Shay's garage when the light shone on Benjy's hair just so and Ace -).  
"Dude, we gotta talk though," Benjy says.  
So Ace fortifies himself as suggested with a couple substantial hits of ganga, and Max pulls off onto the same dead end wooded road he had on Thanksgiving, when they'd just lazily made out in the backseat for like, a whole hour. Ace feels like that might not be in the cards for tonight when Max kills the lights and hands him a can of Dr Pepper from the 24 pack he and Blair keep in the backseat. It's also a far cry from the Frosties and fries suggested earlier - Ace hopes that comes after. His stomach is starting to churn, because the look on Benjy's face - he holds onto the fact Benjy said they - him and Ace - are ok.  
Max lights a cigarette. "So I figured out what the deal is with Blair," he says on the exhale.  
"Yeah?" Ace prods ("Romeo and Juliet are together in eternity..." Blue Oyster Cult sings in the background).  
"Well, I know for sure she's either a lesbian or asexual."  
That...makes a metric fuckton of sense. Ace blinks, digesting it, then - "Benjy! You don't have the right to tell me that!" (Ace may have done some research. His dad finally gave in and got the internet a few weeks ago, and the first thing Ace figured out was how to clear the search history.)  
"Why not?"  
"You just - just - " Ace is at a loss. "What if someone just went around telling people about you, huh?"  
"Pfft. Like I would tell anyone but you." Max shifts in his seat, so they're closer to facing each other, laces their fingers together - all five of them, which is - that's rare. Ace gulps Dr Pepper.  
"Here's the unconfirmed part," Max pauses to drag in on his cigarette. "I think she's probably pregnant."  
Ace is Ice. Everything goes cold - he's really, really cold suddenly.  
Max barrels on, always one to rip the fucking bandaid right the fuck off. "If she is, it's yours. She's been with Kevin Hanniford in some capacity, but I'm pretty sure that was only a couple weeks ago -"  
"What the freaking fuck?" Ace had thought that would come out as a shout but in his ears it's more of a cross between a whine and a whimper.  
Max runs through the conversation he apparently forced out of Blair less than two hours earlier. Ace is buzzing through the whole thing - he looses his hand from Max's so he can hit his pipe again - he's only getting bits and pieces as Max rants on.  
"...so I was trying to convince her Planned Parenthood - which is a BLOCK away from our FUCKING HOUSE...  
"...hanging out with those absolutely EXCESSIVE girls who go to that trendy non-denominational church...  
"...anyway, not sure if when I dropped her off at home she was going to tell the parents or just mope about it but I'm pretty sure she won't abort it, so by default that means she's fucking spawning it..."  
The ardent (yet strangely gentle) tirade cuts off and Ace feels two hands cupping his face. Rough cloth is dabbed at his cheeks, and Ace is abruptly aware of Max wiping at his face with his shirt sleeves ("second time today," Max says under his breath) then - "Janny, Jans. C'mon man. You ok? Talk to me please Jans, you're scaring me a little bit here."  
And Aaron surges forward, his face burried in Benjy's neck, and just SOBS. Aaron John Janczewski is only 15 years old. How long does it take a baby to...cook? Metamorph? Stoned out of his mind now, Ace can't remember if it's six or ten months. Either way, he'll be barely 16 when it's born and WHAT the FUCK?! Still, he doesn't want his baby to DIE - he's mostly aware of blubbering that out and Max trying to tell him it's not a viable life form right now anyway but all Ace can think of is the tiny phoeble-thing in Blair's stomach - fuck. He never even liked Blair in the first place, not really, and now he's stuck with her for life. And - and, does it have toes yet? Fuck. Ace can't DO this.  
He's gasping for breath but it's easier now and somehow they're in the backseat now and Benjy is wrapped entirely around him; they're rocking slightly, Benjy's lips pressed against his cheek, crooning in his ear - "Janny, Janny, Janny. Shhh. Shhh Jans. I've got you. Jans. C'mon darling, please. Janny Janny Jans... BREATHE please Janny..."  
Aaron pulls in a deep shuddering breath.  
"That's it Jans." Benjy strokes his fingers through Aaron's hair. "In and out. Do it again for me."  
Aaron breathes again, in and out, wrapped tightly in Benjy's arms, the breath from both their lungs mingling together against their lips. Their mouths are together but they're not really kissing, just helping each other breathe. It's all weed tinged - their breath, their clothes, the car - smells like pot smoke. Aaron can't give a fuck. He melts into Max - jesus FUCK Benjy - and just holds on for now.  
*  
Ace misses curfew by two hours, and as penance has to spend the whole weekend at home.  
He uses the time to write his essay on "The Grapes of Wrath" (he never got around to asking Max for help), looking up babies on the internet, and chewing his fucking fingernails till his fingers bleed.  
*  
Football's been over for a month and Ace doesn't bother with basketball this year. He's sitting on edge, but Blair is silent, silent, silent, and most days, Ace manages to forget why he's waiting for her to speak.  
Ace has always heard that when you hit rock bottom thre's no place to go but up, so under the cloud of dread constantly hanging over him he's a little optimistic. He still has Benjy and Shay and the guys. Baseball is right around the corner, and he turns 16 at the start of February and gets his license finally.  
The flaw in Ace's logic is this: he apparently doesn't know what rock bottom looks like.  
*  
It's the end of February, and Blair's still silent. Max has been trying to talk to her but she's just shutting him out every time, and Ace has no idea how her parents haven't noticed what a wreck she is. Somehow, even though she's already at five months she's not showing much under baggy hoodies (and Ace now knows exactly how long a human baby cooks).  
It's late Saturday night and Ace is sitting back against Max's headboard, lap full of Max, and they're joined at the mouth when the door flies open. "Did you take my - holy shit."  
Max's little brother Bo is standing there frozen - for only about three beats before his mouth opens wide and he hollers "MOM" at the top of his lungs, darts away.  
"Shit," Max is saying. "Shit, fuck - " he doesn't move out of Ace's lap but leans forward, cradling his face in both hands. "Jans. Janny. Are you listening to me? You have to pay attention."  
Aaron swallows, nods. He feels - not himself. Like he's someone else looking out of his body, but at least he's not panicking.  
Max leans in, kisses him once more - it's brief but full and sweet. "You with me?"  
Ace nods again. "I'm with you." His voice sounds like fine grade sandpaper.  
"Dude. Ok. Here's what you're gonna do: Lie. Your. Face. Off."  
"Wai- what?"  
Max is gripping his shoulders. "Look. Blame everything on me. It was just this once. Bo didn't see very much. Say it was all my idea. You only let me because I was curious. Because I asked."  
"Dude, Benjy - I can't -"  
"You CAN. You have to. Janny it's gonna be bad enough this way - your parents -"  
Ace closes his eyes, a pained whine at the back of his throat.  
Max swallows. "Ten bucks my mom's calling your mom right now.  
Ace's hands may be shaking.  
"Do whatever they want," Max is saying. "Whatever it takes to keep them from punishing you or sending you away. Say I'm disgusting, or say you hate me -"  
Ace shakes his head. "No - Benjy, no. I love you." He thinks this is the first time he's said that out loud, with words, and feels like an asshole, and Max is laughing, an edge of hysteria to it.  
"Oh my god Jans. Whatever you do, do NOT tell them that. Adults think teenagers are just HILARIOUS when we think we're in love. We obviously have no idea what love is."  
Ace grimaces, because Max has a point. His mom regularly says this to Cassie when they're fighting about her boyfriend.  
Max leans in and kisses Ace one last time. "For the record, I love you too."  
*  
Max, of course, is right about everything. Max is always right.  
His mother comes screeching up to Max's house in record time, in her BATHROBE, yelling almost incoherently at Dotty about her pervert son - and Ace is whisked away before he can say a word (if he even wanted to).  
His parents yell and scream, and then calm down when Ace does what Max wanted and blames the whole thing on him. Still, he's forbidden from hanging out with Shay and the guys, or even SPEAKING to Max - Ever Again. Even when Ace tells them again Max isn't gay, he was just curious, it was just the once and only for a second, his mom just shakes her head, her lips tight. "Cassie is always talking about how that boy has at least three girlfriends at a time. He's obviously a degenerate. It was only a matter of time before he broadened his horizons, so to say."  
His parents decide they've been too lax, have failed as parents. Ace's new curfew is 9pm. He's only allowed on the internet for school. They start taking him and Cassie to CHURCH - that trendy one Max is always bitching about.  
"Isn't this a little overboard?" Ace complains. "You go from being pretty cool to practically Amish just like that?"  
"Ace. Sweetie. We should have been better parents to begin with. We were too wrapped up in our own lives."  
His dad shakes his head. "You gave us a wakeup call son."  
So - fuck.  
No one at school knows what happened.  
"Ace and Max broke up!" he hears a giggly freshman crow at lunch one day. Ace rolls his eyes, and Topher Carter and Katie Jordan both look at him pointedly.  
"What did happen? Max won't tell anyone, and the rest of your little boyband isn't talking either." Katie rases her eyebrows expectently.  
Ace just shakes his head. "My parents decided they're a bad influence, that's all."  
Topher almost chokes on a dorito. "You've been hanging out with Max and Shay for YEARS and they're just now realizing about the -" he waves his hand vaguely - a teacher is standing within hearing range.  
Ace shrugs. "Dude. I don't even know."  
That's his story and he's sticking to it. It's not a lie, anyway.  
*  
Sometimes, Max bumps into him in the halls, and his pinkie will find Ace's, hook through it for a fraction of a moment, and that's it, that's all Ace has to know he's still anything to Max, that Max still thinks about him, even cares.  
*  
At the end of March, Dotty Benjamin calls his mother, and this time it's her turn to be hysterical. Ace wonders if this is it - is this what rock bottom looks like? Is he there yet?  
The Benjamins come to his house (it's not said, but neither side wants he and Max anywhere near each other). There's an extremely awkward dinner, wherein his mother roleplays Martha Stewart, and Ace has found a brand new hell. He's pretty sure, from the way Dotty is glaring at him, he'd be stone cold dead if looks could do that sort of thing. He's defiled two of her babies now. Jeb Benjamin is stoic, Ace's dad is awkward, his mom is falsely cheerful, and Blair's gone full out ghost on him - worse than a girl-bot, she's just a shell. She barely says a word.  
The only thing that's decided that evening is the Janzcewskis will help support the baby financially until Ace can himself, which -  
Jesus fucking christ, it's REAL now. He has a kid. He's responsible for a person.  
He's going to graduate high school and immediately have to feed and clothe and potty train someone. His kid is gonna get older and want to smoke pot and kiss girls or boys (or both, like its uncle), and -  
At least there's one thing he'll get right, Ace thinks. His kid wil be allowed to love whoever it fucking well pleases, and Blair can get fucked if she thinks otherwise.  
Dotty and his mom are bickering about something, and his dad, clearly at a loss, is trying to get Blair to speak in something besides monosyllables, when Jeb pulls him aside.  
"How you holding up kiddo?"  
Ace can only blink at him, Max's Dad's hand solid and warm on his shoulder.  
"I know it's been hard. Max misses you a lot - he's pretty miserable. Just hang in there. Either the adults'll eventually come to their senses or you'll turn 18 in a couple years and do whatever you want."  
Ace blinks faster, his nose stinging, and fucking Jeb "should be a saint" Benjamin pulls him into a tight hug.  
"I'm trying kiddo," he whispers to Ace. "Those women are a couple of immovable objects though."  
"Thanks," Ace manages to croak.  
*  
This is not rock bottom either. The guys on the team give him shit for it - the "knocking up Benjamin's sister" thing - but he can shrug it off. Tyler Edison, who's also on the JV team, has a pregnant girlfriend.  
"At least you can fuck whenever now, right? you can't get her pregnant again."  
Shrugging uncomfortably, Ace says "yeah - no. We can't actually stand each other, so."  
And they're both probably gay, there's that too.  
*  
And then, on an otherwise ordinary spring day - this. This is the day Ace gets to see what Rock Bottom looks like. It looks like a warm breezy afternoon at the end of April. It sounds like a shout from the locker rooms at the back of the grandstand - a familiar chant of "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" - JV's still out on the field, so it's got to be between some guys on the varsity team -  
Nah. Max CAN fight, but he doesn't.  
About half the team is heading towards the ruckus, and Coach Gillespie shouts, "Gentlemen, stay back!" He starts heading that way himself (along with a few guys who are either deaf or just don't care) when Noel Carter shoots onto the field, hauling ass towards Gillespie.  
"Coach!" he's gasping. "Half the team is beating the shit out of Benjamin and Coach Greer is just WATCHING!"  
Ace's vision whites out for a split second, and then he goes to fucking SPRINT to Max - and jerks back, shoulder wrenching in its socket. Fucking Carter's got a vice grip on his forearm.  
"Don't you dare," Carter says, voice icy.  
The field is mostly deserted now, except for the two of them, facing off at second base.  
"Fuck Carter - let go! I -" his voice is cracking - jesus fuck - HALF the TEAM? They're going to kill him.  
Carter yanks him closer. "Are you crying?"  
"No!" Ace sniffs, backhandedly wiping at his cheeks with his free hand. Fuck, why is he like this? Max never cries.  
"Shit - I thought - You didn't know about this?"  
Carter still isn't letting go and what the fuck is he talking about? He's got 30lbs Ace so it's not like Ace can get free if Carter really wants to keep him there. "Fuck Carter," he hisses, because the grip is starting to hurt. "Let me GO. They're going to KILL him."  
Carter looks at him consideringly for a moment, then, "And what are YOU gonna do to stop it?"  
Nothing, Ace knows, there's nothing he can do to stop it, he'll only get hurt too, and if Max isn't killed himself he'll kill Ace for that probably. Still, he feels like he needs to be there, like he's betraying Max for not being there when he needs someone.  
The sound of sirens echoes in the distance, getting closer.  
"Shit," Carter says. "Here comes the calvalry. I had Topher call 911. Thank god they listened. C'mon. We gotta get you cleaned up."  
What?  
Carter's leading him off the field, not to the locker rooms but to the public bathrooms. "Look," he's murmuring, low, urgent. "You have no idea how this started, do you?"  
"How what -?"  
"Here's the thing. People have been saying for like, more than a couple weeks now, the reason you and Benjamin are fighting is because he like, molested you. Sexually."  
"They what?!" Ace whirls on Carter, can feel his face twist with -  
"Goddamnit Janczewski, keep your head down!" Carter yanks him through the swinging door of the restroom. "So obviously that didn't happen."  
"Not like, involuntarily." Ace shakes his head numbly. "We got caught." And apparently that's all he has to say. Carter knows, and he's not gonna judge, even if he was in a position to. He winces in sympathy though, then starts wiping gently at Ace's face with a wad of wet paper towels.  
"Jesus, you mark up fast when you cry. So you're not avoiding each other -"  
"We are, but not because we want to. Our moms - christ, I've never seen my mom so fucking MANIC. She's got me going to church now."  
"Fucking straights," Noel mutters. He's wetting more paper towels - hands a hasty sort of compress over. "Hold this over your eyes man."  
"Why are we doing this?" Ace complains, but complies anyway. "Max needs -"  
"Max NEEDS you to keep your cool. C'mon man. I'm not the only one in this room whose dad's a lawyer. The first thing these guys are gonna say is they had a good reason - they were like, defending your honor." Noel sounds disguested, and spits on the ground to prove it. "You gotta show they were wrong - there's nothing to defend. That you have no problem with Ben."  
That - that makes sense. He nods, obediently holding the cool towels over his face.  
"That's gotta be good enough," Noel finally says, "as long as you don't start bawling again."  
Ace glares at him.  
"Look," Noel holds up his hands in defence. "I get it. You two are super close. I mean, he dumped ME for your scrawny ass."  
"He tell you that?" Max wouldn't -  
"Nah. I put two and two together. It wasn't hard after the last 15 minutes. You just can't let anyone else put two and two together."  
"Dude, my dad's a lawyer. I was born knowing how to lie while not lying."  
*  
Noel was right. The police do want to question Ace.  
Coach Gillespie stands by looking grim. "Son, are you sure you want to do this without a parent present?"  
Six members of the varsity team have been taken away in cuffs. Ace just wants to get this over with and find out, somehow, if Max is going to live.  
"I don't know what you think we're DOING - if I want my mommy I'll ask him to stop."  
The officer, a hawk nosed man named Jarrett, grins. It's somehow not friendly, but approving still. "Alright Jan - Jan - shit. Ok if I just call you Aaron?"  
"Call me Ace - everyone does, even my dad." Everyone but Max. Fuck. He will not cry. This guy must be new though, if he can't say Janczewski - his dad's on the city council for fucks sake.  
"Ace then." He nods. "Ace, several witnesses claim Max Benjamin sexually assaulted you."  
Ace wonders if they claim to have actually witnessed it, or if Officer Jarret just can't talk, but he pushes it away and puts his theater face on.  
"What the FUCK?!" Ace thinks he sounds shocked enough. Or was it overkill? Fuck.  
"So...were you NOT sexually assaulted? or are you surprised others knew about it?"  
"I'm sorry, sexually WHAT?! The FUCK, man? Benjy's my best friend!" He can see Noel in the corner of the room, waiting to be interviewed himself, trying to keep a straight face. Does that mean he's doing a good job or a horrible one? "Is that why...? Fuck!" Ace stands up and kicks a trash can. It makes a satisfying clang and serves two purposes: aiding his act - and, well, he really actually needed to kick something.  
"Whoa son, calm down." Gillespie grabs his shoulders and steers him back to his seat.  
Officer Jarrett nods at Coach, turns back to Ace. "I've been told you two have been avoiding each other for several weeks now. Best friends? Really?"  
Ace sighs, shrugs, feeling sullen, letting himself look it. "My mom found Jesus. Max isn't Jesus approved."  
"Oh yeah?"  
Ace looks at the cop, leans forward a little, confiding. "Ok, see - Benjy smokes. Cigarettes, you know? He has a lot of girlfriends - a LOT."  
Noel laughs from the corner. "He had mine last year!"  
Officer Jarrett looks over his shoulder, and Noel shrugs. "No hard feelings man. I found out a lotta other guys had her too."  
"Maybe sometimes he has a couple beers," Ace continues, and he has the cop's attention again. "He's just a guy, like the rest of us. But my mom like, REALLY found Jesus. And Benjy has like...a LOT of girls."  
And Officer Jarrett, who's been looking progressively more uneasy as Ace talks, now looks like he's going to be sick. So does Coach Gillespie. "It was just a rumor." He says flatly. "Max Benjamin never touched you."  
"Not like THAT!" And it's true. There was no assault. Ace has gotten through this whole interview without telling a single lie.  
Noel looks positively gleeful behind the adults' backs, holds a thumb up.  
"Your varisty baseball team beat some poor innocent kid to death because of an unfounded rumor," Officer Jarret says, still deadpan, to Coach.  
Ace can feel himself blanching, all the blood in his head pooling to fuel the sudden pounding of his heart. He's not acting anymore. "Wait - to death?" he wheezes out. "Max is dead?"  
"Oh lord," Gillespie reaches for him. "Head between your knees son. Deep breaths. Max isn't dead - I won't lie, he's not in good shape - but he was breathing fine when the ambulance carted him outta here -"  
"Ambulance?" Finally, with his cover in place, Ace is allowed to freak out as much as he wants. Instead, he swoons like a victorian maiden, and comes to with another fucking cold compress on his face.  
"I gotta say," Coach Gillespie is saying to the cop, "I'm relieved. Those two were always like brothers. I was concerned when they stopped talking, and then the rumors - I'm a teacher, I hear things. To find out it was all some crazy whim of Sharon Goddamn - excuse me - Janczewski - "  
"Who we should call - Mrs Jans-whoosit, I mean -" the officer says, and Ace sits RIGHT up.  
"No. Not my mom." If Ace sees his mom right now he'll - he'll - well, he won't hurt her but it surprises him how much he wants to right now.  
"I'll take him home," he hears Noel offer, "when you're done asking me questions. His mom's probably not his favorite person right now, cuz like, she roundabout started this shit show."  
*  
The Bobcats varsity baseball team, even though they were nearly undefeated up till the end of April (one loss), don't go to state. Six of their starters and their coach are suspended (with one on the DL), and they finish out the last few games of the season with half the JV team hastily promoted, with Coach Gillespie at the helm, "For Max." Ace is offered Max's first base position but declines it. For one, the hypocracy. For two, he couldn't keep his head in the game if he tried. For three, the hipocracy. They lose every game because frankly, every JV team the Bobcats have except the girls soccer team are shit. The class of 2000 and 2001 are just really bad at sports.  
According to Blair, who Ace finally gets ahold of the day after, Max's right arm is broken - a compound fracture - his left ankle is fractured, he has three broken ribs, and is pissing blood from bruised kidneys, but he apparently escaped with only a mild concussion.  
This is because Max, who had been enrolled in martial arts from third grade through eighth, will later tell them his main concern had been his head. When he realized at least six guys were coming at him, he just rolled up and protected his head and neck. Trying to fight six guys would've gotten him killed for sure. This is also because contrary to what Ace thought at first, the whole team wasn't against him. Some of them, when they saw what was happening, tried to pull the blood-thirsty hoard off of Max.  
And Ace thanks whoever controlls the cosmos that Max is smarter than he is, and that not all the juniors and seniors are douchebags.  
On the third day - Sunday - one Seamus Gallagher arrives on his doorstep.  
Ace's mother had been absolutely immovable on the subect of Max. "No," she'd said. "If you interact with that boy in any way you'll only fuel the rumors." She's wrong - it's exactly the opposite - even Ace's dad, with his lawyer brain, knows this, but she's adamant.  
She's not there though when Shay comes to get Ace, eyes flashing and face like stone, as he grimly pulls Ace to his car. Ace's dad merely looks up over his Sunday Times and nods.  
Shay is silent most of the way to the hospital, till he finally just explodes. "Fuckin' A, man! What the fuck! Your best friend, practically your BOYFRIEND if I'm getting it right, is half dead in the hospital and you're just sitting on your ass at home?" Shay knows? of course Shay knows. Max hasn't had anyone to talk to but Shay.  
"Shay - dude - you don't get it -"  
"What the HELL is there to get? Your boy's hurt, you go!"  
"Max doesn't - he doesn't want - he made me swear -"  
"Just shut the fuck up man. You disgust me."  
Shay tows him into the hospital, through the reception area, down the hall. Max has been moved out of the ICU to a regular room, mostly out of danger but still on drugs the hospital can't send him home with.  
"What the fuck is he doing here Shay?" Max spits, the moment Shay and Max appear in his doorway, and Ace shrinks back. Fuck, he knew this was a mistake.  
"I thought - he - " Shay is stuttering, totally thrown.  
"I told you why he wasn't supposed to be here - if either of our parents find out -"  
"Max! They could've killed you! Your parents wouldn't -"  
"You completely underestimate the venom and wrath a suburban housewife can contain in her grudge. If either of our moms see him here -"  
Jesus. Ace backs away slowly, biting his lip. It's just - Max looks like he's at death's door, swathed in bandages and casts and covered with red and black bruises and surrounded by flower arrangements like it's a fucking funeral or something (there's an acutally hideous arrangement of like, 50 garishly colored carnations that Ace notes absently are probably from Geo and 'Rique, as he's stuck in a panic loop in his head), well, intellectually he knows why Max doesn't want him here, but it sort of hurts. He hasn't said a word to Ace and -  
"Oh no! Janny! Jans. Darling. Come here. I'm sorry. I'm not mad at you. I could never be mad at you. Ok, that's a lie. I could be and I have been, but not right now, not for this..." and Max is babbling.  
Darling? Max hasn't ever called him anything to his face but Janny, Jans, or Aaron (or, you know, things like ass hole or douche bag but) - darling? Once in a fever dream maybe. Still, Ace hesitantly goes to him, holds out a hand - "Dude. I don't know where to touch you without hurting you, but I need something like a hug right now. Please."  
Max's left arm, which sports a deep purple and red-tinged bruise just above the elbow but is otherwise fine, reaches out and he pulls Ace closer with a gentle grip to his wrist. "Shay. Shut the door" he says, and when Shay does Max pulls him closer. "A kiss then? A kiss is fine."  
A kiss is fine. It's the first in two months, but it's fine. Really, he's ok.  
Ace is not ok. Max's lips are so soft, and unbruised, unlike the rest of him, and there's that feeling again, chest tight and it's hard to catch his breath and Max is so MAX even hopped up on morphine -  
"Oh my god Jans. Don't cry. Shit Shay, we broke him -"  
Ace sinks into the chair by the bed, head down beside Max, the hand not being held clutched in his hair and he's BAWLING. Again.  
"Janny. Jans. Shhh, Jans," Max is saying - actually, he's giggling a bit, the asshole. "You gotta get it together before the nurse comes and kicks you out."  
Ace tries to - holds his breath and abruptly hiccups. "Benjy, they made me think you were DYING. I had to talk to the cops and - did you KNOW? Did you know what everyone was SAYING?"  
"You DIDN'T know?" Shay says from behind him, and Ace glares back over his shoulder.  
"No! Shit. I would've kicked some ass if I heard anyone talk shit like that!" Ace also knows how to fight, though he usually doesn't.  
"Told you," Max grins goofily, playing with Ace's fingers, like he does.  
Max is playing with his fingers again. Ace wipes his face with his free hand, and maybe he's grinning goofily back.  
"So how the fuck did that rumor start?" Shay rubs a hand over the stubble of his shaved scalp. "Like, if I weren't seeing you two like -" he gestures at their joined hands. "Christ, you're CUTE. It's gross. Anyway, I wouldn't believe it. I barely believed it when you straight up told me Max."  
"Heh. Straight," Ace snarks. Shay glares at him.  
"Sorry I told without asking you Jans. I know how you feel about that stuff, like outing other people," Max says, bringing Ace's hand to his lips with a jerk - which, he probably meant it as a romantic gesture but it pulls Ace right out of his seat with a lurch, and Ace laughs a little, finally, for like the first time in forever.  
"Oh my god you're as high as a KITE." He leans forward and kisses Max again, because he can. Max rewards him with the sweetest smile Ace has ever seen.  
"Gross." Shay is making a repulsed face.  
Ace leans back into the chair. "Anyway, it was either Cassie or Blair who started the rumor, unless someone's just making shit up."  
Max's mouth makes an "O".  
Shay smacks his forehead. "Fuck. Why didn't we think of that?"  
Ace shrugs. "Either Blair like, innocently confessed it to one of her so called friends in what she thought was secret, or Cass, who's a malicious bitch -"  
"Ugh!" Max yanks on Ace's hand again. "I don't care anymore. Listen Aaron. Jans, listen. I've been laying here for DAYS."  
"Two," Shay interrupts.  
"Two and a HALF. Days. But I've been thinking Janny. We need a SONG."  
"A... What now?"  
"A SONG Jans. Like, you know. People have songs together. So I was thinking Jans." Max pauses, probably for dramatic effect but maybe because he's lost his train of thought because of the morphine. "Cindy. Lauper."  
Ace stares at him for a moment, then starts laughing helplessly. "Oh my GOD Benjy."  
Shay just snorts. "I'm going to find a vending machine. I'll leave you two to your grossness."  
"K - bye!" Max waves at him with his cast-encased arm, then grimaces. "Owie."  
And Ace just - just fucking loves the shit out of this mother fucker.  
And he's here with him, right now.  
*  
So. Rock Bottom. That happened. It's time for things to start looking up.


End file.
